Wednesday, November 2, 2016

I have been remiss! Slacking in my blogging duties! For quite some time now I've been working on Vietnam stuff in 15mm. I've painted up and posted US Marines, US Army, ARVN, Australians, North Vietnamese Army, Vietcong, helicopters, tanks, amtracs. I've even posted three battle reports:
1: http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/09/south-leon-dmz-prelude-i.html
2: http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/09/south-leon-dmz-prelude-ii.html
3: http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/09/south-leon-dmz-prelude-iii.html

But what I haven't posted is all my wonderful terrain! So first, understand that I've had quite a few trees of various types for quite some time, so I'm not showing those here. But I picked up more trees, as well as a bunch of village stuff, and that's what I want to show you here. Most everything is from Jimmi at Flashpoint Minis, though there are some banana trees from Pegasus and a few odds and ends from Flytrap Minis.

Here's all the stuff, with the intent being to make my table look better and more authentic. I think it works ;)

First up we've got a palm tree, some bamboo shoots, and a Buddhist shrine, all from Flashpoint. My wife, who is Thai, likes the palm tree, but got into me about the bamboo. Yes, I know bamboo is green, but I wanted it to stand out. Then I didn't know how to paint the shrine; being Buddhist, I asked the wife and did as she instructed. I've been to Vietnam but don't recall what the shrines looked like; I can say this looks like many of the shrines you'll see in Thailand ;)

Another look. I just glued all the stuff to a strip of styrene, spray painted everything, then detail painted it and put some grass on it.

The back side.

A close-up.

More brilliance from Flashpoint: a well (probably the wrong color, but I wanted it to stand out), some trees, some 55-gallon drums, and some village crockery and rice.

Other side.

A smaller version, without well.

Again.

Another one. I really DO NOT enjoy messing around with terrain, but I want my stuff to look good and this was a good investment in time and money, and didn't actually take all that long.

Again.

Then I took all the rest of the trees and put them on styrene strips. I spraypainted everything green, then went back and did the trunks brown and put grass on the bases.

There are various Flashpoint plastic trees, and the Pegasus banana trees are mixed in (the smooth-leaved trees).

More.

Even more. I love how the trees have fronds that jut out at all angles, unlike most plastic palm/coconut trees which just hang down (that's how my other ones, bought on Ebay, are).

Then I bought me some hootches. Most are thatch, but the one at far right is supposed to be corrugated tin (not sure how well my paintjob does for that) and the one at top right is wood.

Again.

Great detail, very easy to paint up. My only complaint (sorry Jimmi!) is that they're not hollow and the roofs don't come off. I want to put guys inside!

Again.

Then we've got three sampans, each with a lady working inside.

Again.

Fuzzy closeup...

Again. Very easy to put together and paint up.

Where's my PBR? We've got work to do ;)

More village accouterments: at top are two stake retaining walls, bottom right is a fish farming pond, bottom center is a foot bridge, and bottom left is an animal holding pin. They all look great, no assembly required, and painted up easy. Really helps to make a village look like a village.

Again.

Another angle.

And one more. Oh, and all these are from Flashpoint Minis.

Next up we have some singlet palm trees from Flashpoint.

These are metal and come in three pieces: a base, a trunk, and the fronds.

Went together easy and look cool. They're taller than the rest and so help to break up the outline.

And then we get to some caches. If I'm not mistaken, all these come from Flytrap Minis, except the recoiless rifle at bottom right, which came from the US Marine HQ (or Mule?) pack from Flashpoint Minis. The top and right are both a bunch of different types of weapons and stores, the left is food.

Again.

A closeup. All kinds of cool stuff in here: a claymore, some packs, a satchel charge, some land mines, and a Jerry Can.

Pots and sacks of rice.

More packs, mines, a satchel charge, and some 55-gallon drums (from Flytrap HMMWVs). All the mines and packs are from Flytrap's North Vietnamese.

Well, that's a look at all the new terrain stuff for Vietnam. I did up the first three fights, and I'm working on the next set, which is based on Operation Starlite. Not sure what else I'll do, but I've also still got Dai Do waiting on me, all of which I'll play as part of the 'Fall of South Leon.' Stay tuned.